BoxRec

Gunna need some help here fella's, i remember watchin Ryan in the early part of his career & i even seen him lose to Otis Grant for the WBO title, at which time i thought 1 loss he'll come back, anyway for certain reasons went off boxing for a few years only to get back interested in the sport and see that Ryans boxing career never really took off, so what went wrong - Been meaning to ask this question for a while now, just never got round to it till now. I always thought that Ryan would make it like Naz did - How wrong i was

The truth is that RR was a very limited fighter and he was taught the Ingle way

Now, I think BI is one of the best trainers around, but his style only suits fighters with superb reflexes and quick had speed. Others in his camp get found out as the progress up the ladder

for every Bomber, Naz or Nelson, there is a RR and Pele Reid

They all knock over a few tomato cans on the way up, but eventually they someone catches up with them and it is Goodnight Vienna

he is still knocking about but I don't think he has anything to offer

Rhodes fights like he's trying to peer over a six foot fence.

IMO Jason Matthews RUINED him. Rhodes never, ever fought with the same confidence again.

His chin was the main problem, he nearly came unstuck in his debut, down twice in the 1st I think.
Against a light puncher like Grant he was ok, but as soon as a half decent puncher connected, like Matthews, it was lights out. Took a long time to get his confidence back after that, though I hear he's making another decent run at the top now.

I agree with the Ingle-style issue in this case. Ryan is too easy to hit - tries the usual stuff but can't get out of the way.

Report on his last fight:

http://www.britishboxing.net/news.php?s ... 58944bb554

Hope he does well though - very nice lad.

007 wrote:Rhodes fights like he's trying to peer over a six foot fence.

What do you mean?

He means his chin is in the air.

Kilburn wrote:He means his chin is in the air.

Slapsie Maxie wrote:The truth is that RR was a very limited fighter

Way too harsh - Rhodes lost to a world champ on points when he was young and inexperienced, and good wins over the likes of 'Silky' Jones.
Dodgy chin, and no Naz, but very limited? No.

yeah he had talent to call him limited is way over the top. i saw one of his fights maybe 18 months or so back and the talent was obvious. unfortunately he has those defensive and chin problems that he can't improve on.

i agree with the others on the matthews fight. he was totally humiliated in that fight and has been on the journeyman circuit ever since. :(

Matchfixer wrote:

007 wrote:Rhodes fights like he's trying to peer over a six foot fence.

What do you mean?

Like a meercat.

<img src="http://www.imagesbyglb.com/sd-zoo/meerc ... ></img><br>
Ryan Rhodes.

<img src="http://www.noahgrey.com/expectations/ph ... jpg"></img>

I know it's easy to say with hindsight but I never really saw Rhodes as World class. He did well getting the Londale Belt to keep in then record time. I still chuckle at the scene of Paul Jones showboating then getting KO'd by Rhodes.

He also put up a good show against Otis Grant, that fight should have been a learinig fight for the still green (at world level) Rhodes but he seemed to gain little by it.

As others have said Rhodes had the Ingle style but not the reflexes to make that style work for him, and his chin will never be confused with Haglers. But the Matthews lose I feel finished him.

He was a good fighter at British level, but I was also never convinced he was a true Middleweight either. But he has a Londale belt to keep witch in itself is a wonderfull achievement.

On a personal note I hated his nickname of 'The Spice Boy'.

Totally agree about the Spice Boy tag, why? why? why?

Loved watching Ryan, pushed Grant all the way and some of the body punchs he used to through had me wincing at home.

Don't know what happened with the Ingle camp but it seemed after Naz left the wheels sort of came off.

When he got beat by Matthews, he went on to fight journey men till he got ko by Blundell, then hes back to journey man status again. Blundell says on various web sites Ryan keeps pricing himself out of a rematch.

It's a shame, so wish the Ryan Rhodes of the Ottis Grant fight comes back and injects some passion into the division. Were do you all think he can go???

Then putting Pele in with Orlin Norris after getting beat by Francis really stunned me, and he was then taken apart inside 1 round. It took him ages to recover - he then got beat by Jacklord Jacobs and then drew with Luke Simpkin!

Does anyone have the inside story of what went on inside the Ingle camp at that time?

What's Pele doing now? Someone said he was fighting in K1, is that true??

dopey wrote:Then putting Pele in with Orlin Norris after getting beat by Francis really stunned me, and he was then taken apart inside 1 round. It took him ages to recover - he then got beat by Jacklord Jacobs and then drew with Luke Simpkin!

Does anyone have the inside story of what went on inside the Ingle camp at that time?

What's Pele doing now? Someone said he was fighting in K1, is that true??

Yes Pele is on the K1 curcuit these days and with little sucsess I've heard, shame.

I recall Ingle on Ringside being asked why did he put Pele in with Norris. I can't recall the full story but I remember Ingle saying something about "Pele getting involved with a woman and a religeous organisation!!!, and had stopped listening to him"

I'm sure Ingle said Pele asked for the Norris fight to prove himself, but I may be wrong there.

Ryan was chucked in too early with Otis Grant, but there was a tidal wave of confidence in the ingle camp at the time, and although Rhodes put up a commendable display, he did fall comfortably short on the night.

I don't think he has ever truly recovered from that night - That defeat to Grant took away a lot of what he was all about. His confidence has never been the same since.

Coupled with the shocking defeat to Jason Mathews his career as a future top line fighter was pretty much ruined.